MAKING IT NEW “In a lot of ways, this show is almost a romantic comedy. We never had that on Arrested Development.”

When it went off the air, in 2006, Arrested Development had already cemented its status as one of the great TV comedies of all time. And though many have tried (Modern Family and 30 Rock, most notably), no show since has been able to match its blend of ridiculous characters, rapid-fire punchlines, and constant callbacks to jokes from previous episodes. Now, Arrested Development’s creator, Mitchell Hurwitz, and one of its principal actors, Will Arnett (who played clueless magician GOB Bluth on AD), have reunited in Fox’s Running Wilde, a show with many surface similarities. Both of Arnett’s characters (on Running Wilde, he plays a lonely rich trust-fund guy trying to reconnect with his high-school sweetheart) are self-absorbed and immature. Both shows use voiceover narration; both feature David Cross as an incompetent. And in both, the nominal “straight” character (here played by Keri Russell) has just as much of a crazy side as everyone else. But there are also differences, as Arnett pointed out to me when we spoke by phone.

How has shooting gone so far?
It’s been going really well. I’m really happy with the shape that the show is taking. We’re just starting to find our groove.

I’ve noticed lately that a lot of shows start to get better and better around the fourth or fifth episode.
What’s very difficult — if you were to ask a person whose job it was to create a TV show, like a writer of some sort, to create a perfect pilot episode, I don’t think that they would necessarily do it in a way that you’re used to seeing a pilot on TV. The idea of a pilot, especially a comedy pilot — the deck is stacked against you, because you can’t just tell jokes and be a comedy. You have to serve a lot of different masters. You have to tell a story, you have to introduce all these characters — you have to do all of these other things before you can even start getting into writing funny scenes. That seems like it’s the most important thing to the powers that be. So that’s kind of a tall order. Oftentimes in TV comedies, you’re starting in the hole, and you’ve got to fight your way out of it.

Is David Cross going to be a series regular, or is he just a guest for the pilot?
Oh, no, he’s around. He’s on the show. Whether he likes it or not. I’ve never even asked him how he feels about it. [Deadpan] And, frankly, I don’t care. We had always wanted him on the show. He was supposed to do the original pilot, but he was stuck behind the volcano, the volcanic ash.

I notice that you’re credited as a writer. How much of a collaborative process has it been so far? Has it still mostly been Mitchell Hurwitz and Jim Vallely?
I wrote the pilot with those guys. Originally, I thought that Mitch was going to write it, and then he told me that I had to do it too. He kind of made me do it, you know? I had never written a TV show before. I’d written a few things — nothing that’s ever been made. I’m not one of those people that’s like “I’m a writer,” or “I need to do this.”

Interview: Andy Richter We have a chub for Andy Barker, P.I. (just released out on DVD), because we have a major chub for the show’s star, Andy Richter. Richter plays an accountant who is mistaken for a detective-for-hire and decides to just roll with it.

Down the Tubes Midsummer television has a terrific offering of new and returning shows about aliens, firefighters, crystal meth, and more to turn that beautiful brain of yours to Play-Doh and keep you thoroughly entertained.

Interview: Adam Green gets frightful laughs with 'Holliston' Director and Holliston native Adam Green ( Frozen, Hatchet ) knows a thing or two about what it's like to be stuck in your hometown post-college, working a dead-end job, and pining for the high school girl of your dreams. Green parlayed all that angst into Holliston , a new television series for FEARnet.

Cross Town Traffic at the Wilbur When bespectacled alt-comic icon David Cross paid a visit to the Wilbur Theatre last October, he giddily tore Boston “a new asshole” — but, hey, at least he was kind enough to have “stitched that new asshole up with jokes.”

Easy does it Writer/producer Eric Overmyer was quoted in a New York Times Magazine article last month, but it’s worth repeating: “ Treme is not the The Wire .” He went on: “Those who are expecting The Wire or wanting The Wire may be frustrated.”

Interview: Cesar Millan "Pit bulls are not bred for healing people, or for healing dogs. But because I channel the energy into something more humane, they're using all this pit-bull energy into really making it happen."

REVIEW: THE NEWSROOM | June 20, 2012 The Newsroom is a dose of concentrated Sorkin, by turns maddening and exhilarating.

HBO'S VEEP NEEDS MORE MEAN | April 23, 2012 Reality, right now, is so absurd that almost everyone has already adopted a "laugh-to-keep-from-crying" approach to the news. We don't need someone to tell us how truly horrifying our political landscape is. So what's a satirist to do?